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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24934900">Talking Strategy</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/piratesPencil/pseuds/piratesPencil'>piratesPencil</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>DreamWorks Dragons (Cartoon), How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>(they're already at the lovers stage but they were definitely enemies), Childhood Memories, Enemies to Lovers, Established Relationship, M/M, Swimming, discussing the past and thinking about the future</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 06:54:34</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,282</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24934900</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/piratesPencil/pseuds/piratesPencil</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“Would you have killed Oswald? If he hadn’t disappeared?”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>The question had been plaguing Hiccup since they’d gone searching for Oswald on Vanaheim, weeks before. The way Dagur had panicked at the possibility of having to face his father had surprised Hiccup, had planted the question in his mind.</i>
</p><p>Hiccup contemplates his past with Dagur, and their future together.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dagur the Deranged/Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>47</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Talking Strategy</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Takes place shortly after "Searching for Oswald… and Chicken".</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They’d been flying for more than half a day by the time they finally set down on a small, unnamed island. Dagur had shown up unannounced on Dragon’s Edge that morning, and had demanded that Hiccup take a weekend trip with him to “discuss strategy, chief to future chief”.</p><p>At first, Hiccup had put up a bit of a fight—he needed to be on the Edge, planning, preparing for whatever the dragon hunters’ next move would be, not flying off somewhere with Dagur.</p><p>But Dagur had insisted, and now here they were, in the middle of absolutely nowhere, with nothing but their dragons and each other and the warm afternoon sun.</p><p>The second that Sleuther touched down, Dagur was leaping off of his dragon’s back.</p><p>“Hiccup!” Dagur said excitedly, pointing at a wide, slow-moving river right near where they’d landed. “We should go swimming!”</p><p>“I thought we were going to talk strategy?” Hiccup said, but Dagur was already racing for the sandy riverbank, shedding his armour as he ran.</p><p>Hiccup rolled his eyes, but he wasn’t really annoyed. In all honesty, he cherished these brief occasions when Dagur would whisk him away from the Edge. The first few times Dagur had shown up, claiming he needed Hiccup for something or other, it had taken a lot to convince the other riders—especially Astrid—that Dagur wasn’t just trying to get Hiccup alone so he could off him.</p><p>The other riders’ trust in Dagur had grown over the past few months, but it was still tenuous. Hiccup, though, had had enough proof at this point that if Dagur wanted to harm him, he would have done it already.</p><p>Instead, what Dagur was really offering Hiccup, buried under pretenses of missions and private strategy discussions, was a chance to just <em>get away</em>. These days, it felt like Hiccup always had to be on high alert, worrying about Viggo, about Krogan, about the hunters, about his father’s expectations, and now about Johann, too, and however he fit into all of this.</p><p>And no matter how much Hiccup loved his riders, when he was with them, he felt <em>responsible,</em> always on, always playing the role of leader.</p><p>With Dagur, Hiccup could just <em>be</em>.</p><p>He swung himself off of Toothless’ back and followed Dagur to the river’s edge.</p><p>Dagur had stripped down to nothing but his leggings, and he was wading into the river as Hiccup approached the shore, kicking up water that splashed Hiccup and the dragons.</p><p>“Hey!” Hiccup complained, shaking himself.</p><p>“Strip, Hiccup!” Dagur shouted, laughing.</p><p>“Oh, shut up.” But Hiccup was laughing, too, and already unbuckling his leather armour.</p><p>He tossed his clothes aside and pulled off his prosthetic—swimming was a lot more pleasant without a piece of metal strapped to his leg.</p><p>He hopped the few steps to the water’s edge, and then launched himself at Dagur, sending them both tumbling into the deeper water.</p><p>“What was that for?” Dagur shouted, sputtering as he surfaced.</p><p>Hiccup laughed. “Payback!” He kicked away from Dagur and then lay back, letting the water buoy him.</p><p>“From that <em>one time</em> when we were kids?” Dagur pouted. “You know I wouldn’t have <em>actually</em> let you drown, Hiccup.”</p><p>“Sure,” Hiccup said, rolling his eyes.</p><p>“I wouldn’t!” Dagur insisted.</p><p>He swam closer to Hiccup, and flicked a few droplets of water at Hiccup’s face.</p><p>“Hey!” Hiccup said, turning to face Dagur.</p><p>“I <em>promise</em> I wouldn’t have let you drown.”</p><p>“It doesn’t matter,” Hiccup said. “What matters is that you won’t drown me <em>now</em>.”</p><p>“Of course I won’t!” Dagur said, looking genuinely offended.</p><p>“I know,” Hiccup said, reaching for Dagur in the water. He draped his arms loosely over Dagur’s shoulders and leaned forward, both of them treading water, and kissed him.</p><p>When he pulled away Dagur looked almost dazed, the way he always did when Hiccup kissed him, as though he still couldn’t believe this was real. A part of Hiccup couldn’t believe this—whatever this was that he had with Dagur—was real, either. At least Hiccup was better at keeping his wits about him, though.</p><p>He laughed and pushed away from Dagur again, and then dove underwater. Hiccup had had a few too many close calls with water over the years, and sometimes swimming—especially in the ocean—freaked him out. But today he felt safe, and relaxed, and the water felt good against his skin. There was something thrilling about swimming—in a way, it felt like flying.</p><p>He surfaced to see Dagur still dazedly treading water.</p><p>“Are you going to swim or not?” Hiccup teased, splashing him.</p><p>Dagur snorted and splashed him back. “Of course I am! First one to those rocks over there wins!”</p><p>“Wins what?” Hiccup asked, but Dagur was already underwater, zipping towards some craggy rocks sticking up out of the water a ways away.</p><p>“No fair!” Hiccup called after him. “You can’t challenge a one-legged guy to a swimming race!”</p><p>He dove after Dagur anyways, though, and lost himself in the joy of just <em>being</em>.</p><hr/><p>“Dagur…”</p><p>“Mm?”</p><p>“Can I ask you a weird question?”</p><p>They were sitting on the bank of the river, trailing their bare feet in the cool water. They’d swum and splashed until the sun started to dip in the sky, and now they were lazing together against Toothless’ side, shirtless and sun-warmed.</p><p>“Sure,” Dagur said, unperturbed. There probably weren’t many questions that were too weird for Dagur, considering his general lack of boundaries.</p><p>Hiccup rested his head against Dagur’s shoulder, kicked gently at the water with his right foot, sending droplets arcing up into the air.</p><p>Not that long ago, being this close to Dagur and this vulnerable, mostly naked with his prosthetic out of reach, would have been the stuff of Hiccup’s nightmares. Funny how quickly things could change. In less than a year they’d gone from sworn enemies to—whatever they were now.</p><p>“Hey, Hiccup?” Dagur said, shrugging his shoulder slightly to jostle Hiccup. “You can’t say <em>can I ask you a weird question</em> and then not ask a question. Way to leave a guy hanging.”</p><p>Hiccup laughed, but he was suddenly nervous. Why was he asking Dagur this? Why was he asking Dagur this <em>now</em>?</p><p>Sometimes Hiccup’s curiosity got the best of him, and questions escaped his mouth before he had the chance to think them through, to decide whether or not he really wanted to hear the answer.</p><p>“Would you have killed Oswald?” Hiccup asked before he lost his nerve. “If he hadn’t disappeared?”</p><p>The question had been plaguing Hiccup since they’d gone searching for Oswald on Vanaheim, weeks before. The way Dagur had panicked at the possibility of having to face his father had surprised Hiccup, had planted the question in his mind.</p><p>“Yes,” Dagur said, more quickly and more easily than Hiccup had expected.</p><p>He lifted his head from Dagur’s shoulder so he could look the other Viking in the eye. Dagur merely raised his eyebrows at Hiccup, shrugged his shoulders.</p><p>“What?” he asked. “Up until recently, you thought I <em>had</em> killed him. Everybody did. You weren’t surprised then.”</p><p>“I don’t…” Hiccup didn’t really know what to say, didn’t know exactly what answer he’d expected.</p><p>Sure, it hadn’t been hard to believe that Dagur had killed his father, all those years ago when he’d shown up on Berk in Oswald the Agreeable’s place. For the better part of the last four years, Hiccup had assumed—just like everyone else—that <em>of course</em> Dagur had killed his dad.</p><p>But then Dagur had left the hunters, had allied himself with the dragon riders, had shown Hiccup a side of himself that was infinitely more kind and caring and <em>good</em> than Hiccup ever would have expected. When Hiccup found out that Dagur hadn’t killed Oswald, he’d felt—maybe a bit surprised, but also <em>relieved</em>. It had felt like proof that he’d been right to trust Dagur, proof that Dagur had always been a little bit softer than everyone assumed.</p><p>But here was Dagur, now, blinking at him in mild confusion.</p><p>“Is it really that much of a surprise?” Dagur said, since Hiccup seemed at a loss for words.</p><p>Hiccup shook his head to clear it, looked down at the droplets of water he was still kicking up. “No. I don’t know,” Hiccup said. “I just thought…”</p><p>“That I wouldn’t do that? That I was never evil enough to kill my own dad?” Dagur supplied helpfully.</p><p>Hiccup shrugged. “Yeah,” he said, because what else was there to say?</p><p>“Hiccup…” And now Dagur’s voice was a little bit softer, maybe even a little bit sadder. He reached out and put a tentative arm around Hiccup’s shoulders, as though preparing to pull away if Hiccup so much as flinched. “I’m trying to be a better person now, I really am. But I <em>did</em> do a lot of bad stuff in the past. Really bad stuff. Nothing I do now is going to change that.”</p><p>“I know,” Hiccup said. He leaned back against Dagur’s arm, into the comfort of his touch. Somehow, even while discussing <em>this</em> of all things, Hiccup felt safe with Dagur, knew that he wouldn’t hurt him.</p><p>In a way, Hiccup had always trusted Dagur more than he probably should have. He still remembered being fifteen, supposedly hunting Night Furies with Dagur, and the certainty he’d had that Dagur would never, ever hurt him.</p><p>Even when they’d become enemies, when Dagur declared war on Berk, when he escaped from prison and began hunting Hiccup across the archipelago, even <em>then</em>, Hiccup had never truly feared Dagur, not the way he should have. He’d been frustrated with Dagur, angry at him, <em>hated</em> him at times, but somewhere inside he’d always believed that Dagur would never hurt him, not really.</p><p>Maybe that was naïve. The same naivety that had made him think that <em>of course</em> Dagur never would have killed his dad. Maybe, someday, Hiccup’s naivety surrounding Dagur would come back to haunt him. But it had worked out so far, hadn’t it?</p><p>“Are you… mad at me, Hiccup?” Dagur asked. And this was the Dagur that Hiccup knew, the Dagur that only Hiccup saw in its fullest, the Dagur that just wanted, more than anything, to be <em>liked</em>.</p><p>“No,” Hiccup said, and he meant it. He had a thousand reasons to be mad about Dagur’s past—whether or not he would have killed Oswald if given the chance barely scratched the surface of Hiccup’s list.</p><p>And it would be a lie to say that all of Dagur’s past crimes were forgivable. But Hiccup hadn’t necessarily <em>forgiven</em> Dagur. Instead, he’d accepted this present version of Dagur at face value—as someone who was willing to change, to do better, and that was all that really mattered in the present, wasn’t it?</p><p>“I’m not mad,” Hiccup repeated, turning to face Dagur again. He took Dagur’s face between his hands and pressed a quick kiss to his lips, reassuring. When he pulled away, Dagur was beaming at him.</p><p>“I was just curious,” Hiccup said, settling against Dagur’s side, still half-leaning against a snoozing Toothless. And then, because his curiosity always did get the best of him, he asked, “Why?”</p><p>“Why what?” Dagur asked. “Why would I have killed my dad?”</p><p>It made Hiccup shiver slightly, the way Dagur said that so easily, so casually, but Hiccup nodded.</p><p>“Because I wanted to be chief,” Dagur said simply.</p><p>“And that was… enough of a reason?” Hiccup asked.</p><p>“I guess?” Dagur said. “I mean, he annoyed me a lot, too. I didn’t like how he ran things. I didn’t like how he tried to reel me in, to keep me sane, to keep me from doing whatever I wanted to do.”</p><p>Hiccup had been annoyed by Stoick for most of his childhood. There had been times when he’d outright <em>hated</em> his father, had felt like there was nothing in the world he could do to please him, had felt like he wasn’t even worth talking to because he <em>never listened</em>. But no matter how much Hiccup and Stoick butted heads, it had never even crossed Hiccup’s mind to <em>kill his father</em>. The fact that Dagur would have made that decision—so casually, apparently—shocked Hiccup more than he’d expected it to.</p><p>“I would have regretted it, though,” Dagur said. “I’m sure I would have. Sometimes I even regretted <em>pretending</em> that I killed him.”</p><p>“You did?” Hiccup asked, and somehow this was just as shocking. “Even back then?” It was hard for Hiccup to believe that Dagur’s past self had even been <em>capable</em> of regret. He’d certainly never shown it at the time.</p><p>“Of course,” Dagur said. “He was my <em>dad</em>. Wouldn’t you regret that?”</p><p>What could Hiccup say to that? That he wouldn’t have ever killed his dad in the first place?</p><p>“But… you seemed so proud of yourself. So proud to be chief. You offered to <em>kill my dad</em> so we could both be chiefs.”</p><p>Dagur shrugged against Hiccup again. “It wasn’t like I could go back. He was gone, I was chief. I had to roll with it.”</p><p>“<em>Roll with it?</em> With murder? Or pretend murder, or whatever?”</p><p>“Are you sure you’re not mad, Hiccup?”</p><p>Was Hiccup mad? He didn’t think that he was. He was just curious. Genuinely curious. Hiccup knew Dagur, knew Dagur well, maybe knew Dagur better than anyone, but he wanted to <em>understand</em> Dagur, what had motivated his greatest enemy for so many years.</p><p>“Not mad,” Hiccup repeated. He turned his head slightly, tilted his head up so he could kiss Dagur gently on the cheek. “Just want to understand.”</p><p>At that, Dagur laughed. Dagur’s laugh was another thing that had once filled Hiccup with dread and rage, and that he now found <em>endearing</em>.</p><p>“Oh, Hiccup, Hiccup, Hiccup,” Dagur said, shaking his head. “There’s nothing <em>to</em> understand. Nothing I did when I was younger made <em>sense</em>, not even to <em>me</em> most of the time. I just… <em>wanted</em> to do something, so I did it. Over and over again. And it didn’t matter if I regretted it, if I got hurt, if I made things worse. I just… <em>had</em> to do it.”</p><p>“Had to?”</p><p>“<em>Had</em> to,” Dagur repeated. Now his voice was getting slightly heated, the way it did when all that rage that Hiccup knew was still bubbling somewhere inside the Berserker threatened to spill up and over. “I didn’t get my title for nothing, Hiccup. I just… you don’t know what it’s like to <em>want</em> something, to <em>need</em> something so badly that it feels like you’d just have to tear your own skin off if you didn’t get it. I would get an idea in my head and it would become this… this… this <em>compulsion.</em>”</p><p>“Hey, whoa, it’s okay,” Hiccup said. He sat up and gently grabbed both of Dagur’s wrists, pulling his hands down from where he’d lifted them to grip at his hair.</p><p>Dagur closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, one breath, two, three. When he opened his eyes again he seemed calmer, though there was still a tension to his body that hadn’t been there a few minutes ago, and again Hiccup felt slightly guilty for bringing any of this up.</p><p>Sleuther, who’d been napping in a patch of shade a few feet away, seemed to have sensed his rider’s tension, because he’d stood up and was now nosing at Dagur’s shoulder, crooning slightly.</p><p>“It’s okay, buddy,” Dagur said. Hiccup released Dagur’s wrists, and Dagur reached up to scratch gently under Sleuther’s chin. “I’m okay.”</p><p>Satisfied, Sleuther curled up next to Toothless, his nose still pressed to Dagur’s side, and Dagur turned to Hiccup again.</p><p>“See, most of the time I can talk myself down from that… <em>feeling</em>, now,” he said. “But when I was younger it was like it was <em>eating</em> me, and the only way I could get it to stop was to do something stupid. Something crazy. Something <em>mean</em>.”</p><p>He groaned and leaned his head back against Toothless’ flank. “Except it never actually made it go away. It just made me want to do another stupid thing, and then another and another.”</p><p>“What… changed?” Hiccup asked.</p><p>Dagur shrugged. “Heather? You? Viggo? Maybe I just got old enough to see that all I was doing was digging myself into a deeper and deeper hole. And I wasn’t kidding, being alone on that island for months really did help.”</p><p>“But being alone in prison for three years didn’t?” Hiccup asked.</p><p>He’d meant the question innocently, almost teasingly, but the scowl that Dagur gave him made him instantly regret it.</p><p>“I wasn’t <em>alone</em> in prison,” Dagur spat.</p><p>Hiccup had gathered, from things Dagur had said in passing, that Dagur had <em>hated</em> his time in Outcast prison. Back when they were enemies, Hiccup had been glad—prison was <em>supposed</em> to be a punishment.</p><p>But now he wondered how truly horrible those three years had been for Dagur. He’d ask, someday. But not today, not on top of everything else he was already asking.</p><p>“But on that island…” Dagur said, clearly not wanting to elaborate on his time in prison. “It was just me, you know? No one to get under my skin, but also no one to blame, no one to take all my crazy out on.”</p><p>He closed his eyes, as if he was going back to that time, that place.</p><p>“Caring about Heather, seeing that Viggo thought of me as nothing but a stupid kid, realizing that I wanted what you and your riders had, Hiccup… All of that started to tip me in the right direction, but if I hadn’t been stuck alone with nothing but my own thoughts for months, I’m sure I would have gone right back to hunting you the second I got away from Viggo. Or maybe I would have started hunting Viggo and Ryker. Maybe I finally would have gotten myself killed trying to do it. Who knows.”</p><p>“I’m glad you didn’t,” Hiccup said, softly.</p><p>“Didn’t what? Kill my dad? Keep hunting you?”</p><p>“That stuff, yeah. And that you didn’t get yourself killed.” Hiccup closed his eyes, too, and felt Toothless rumbling softly behind them, as though he was agreeing. “I’m glad I got to know the real you.”</p><p>Hiccup felt Dagur shift beside him, and he opened his eyes to see Dagur had turned to face him, so close their noses almost touched, both leaning back against Toothless.</p><p>“Thanks, Hiccup,” Dagur said softly.</p><p>“Thanks? For what?”</p><p>“For believing that this is the real me. I really hope you’re right.”</p><p>Hiccup hoped he was right, too. After all, Dagur had spent his whole life consumed by his wants, his obsessions, his ability to be utterly cruel and selfish. He’d only spent a few months by Hiccup’s side. Was it naïve, to think that this would last?</p><p>But did it matter? There was no way to know what would happen in the future—not years from now, not even days from now. Hiccup had always been reckless, and it seemed like his life got more unpredictable every year. Maybe it didn’t matter if what he had with Dagur could last—maybe it wouldn’t even be Dagur’s fault if it ended. No matter how much Hiccup cared about Dagur, about his riders, about his father, about Berk, he knew deep down that he would always, always choose dragons first, no matter the cost.</p><p>So maybe Hiccup wasn’t one to talk. Maybe they’d both fall prey to their obsessions someday. But for now, Hiccup could enjoy this, whatever this was.</p><p>“Me, too,” he said, simply, and then leaned forward to close the distance between himself and Dagur, pressed their lips together, lost himself in whatever this was.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This fic is sort of a spiritual successor to my Heathstrid fic <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24691600">Girls' Night</a>—they're both about that feeling you get when a relationship is deeply meaningful but you know it might be fleeting.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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